There are many places online to download video games for your PC, some of which even include games that are free or well below market pricing coming up. I'll share with you the best websites to download your favorite PC games for 2021. A few of these sites even include a dedicated app to make it easier to access their game store in your collection. Let's get started.
Steam (Lord Gaben, Emptier of Wallets)
Let's get the behemoth out of the way first. Steam by a wide margin with more than 50,000 games in their store is the most popular platform to buy and play video games on your PC. One downside is their customer service is hit or miss but has improved quite a bit over the last few years. Good looking to save money? Keep an eye out for their weekly, weekend, and seasonal sales heavy discount along with a decent amount of Free to Play games in their store.
When you install the Steam app for your computer, their games library does a great job of keeping your games collection organized with all your games easily accessible along the left pane.
Top Steam games:
- Grand Theft Auto 5
- Dota 2
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
- Rainbow Six Siege
Epic (Not the hero as claimed)
The creators of Fortnite in 2018 in an attempt to compete with Steam launched their own storefront, called the Epic Games Store. While the selection is limited, they do have exclusive games not found elsewhere. Each and every week since their launch you'll find free game giveaways that are yours to keep once downloaded, along with a healthy selection of free to play games, including Rocket League and the Afor mentioned fortnight.
Top Epic games:
- NBA 2K21
- Chivalry 2
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
GOG (Frees us from DRM)
Next up is Gog, which is the acronym for Good old games. The storefront was created by the folks that CD Projekt group, makers of The Witcher series, and Cyberpunk 2077. Their platform is 100% DRM-free, which means that no activation or online connection is required to play. While they don't have most of the newer AAA titles, they do have a good selection of indie games and old classics.
Having one of the best refund policies of any game store, you can get a refund up to 30 days after purchase. Even if you download it launched and played the game.
Top games in GOG:
- Divinity Original Sin 2
- Dreamfall Chapters
- Bastion
- Transistor
- Invisible Inc.
Origin (Free Loot Boxes)
Another service similar to Steam with a downloadable PC app is Origin. If you're looking for popular tiles, Electronic Arts like Madden, FIFA, Mass Effect, Battlefield, and many others, this is the a place to get those games. If you're concerned about DRM, do not buy any EA titles from Steam or any of the servers offering their games. For example, when playing an EA game purchased on Steam, you'll get both the DRM from Steam and Origin at the same time.
If you're a fan of games made by EA. They offer a subscription service similar to Xbox game pass called EA Play but plans start around $5 per month. Not only do you get access to a large collection of games and members only content, you also gain a 10% discount on games purchased on origin.
Top games in Origin:
- Mass Effect 3
- The Sims 4
- FIFA 15
- Crysis Warhead
- Dragon Age
The Humble Store (Humble Bundles)
The Humble Store is a great site known for the limited-time Humble Bundles that give you the opportunity to buy a ton of free games for one low price of the portion of the proceeds going to charity. For example with this bundle, $20 unlocks more than 20 games. In some cases, with the bundle pay more than the bundle price unlocks additional games. As you can see, most of the games from small and independent developers with some AAA titles mixed in. If bundles are not your thing, You can also find sweet discounts on individual games names new and old in their store. Upon purchasing any game on Humble, you'll be given a key to activate on each Steam or the Epic game store.
Top games in Humble:
- Metro Exodus
- Darksiders Genesis
- Hellpoint
- Cook, Serve, Delicious 3
- LevelHead
Ubisoft Connect (Uplay)
UbisoftConnect, which is the newly rebranded name for Uplay, is owned by Ubisoft. Some of their best-known franchises include Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and the numerous games in their Tom Clancy series. In their store, you'll find the occasional deal and just like EA mentioned earlier, it's best to purchase Ubisoft games directly instead of from Steam or any other platform to avoid having more than one DRM running at the same time.
They also had their very own gamepass like service called Ubisoft+ with access to more than 100 games for around $15 per month. Well not being the best subscription plan available, it might be worth checking out for you if you're not caught up yet with their catalogs.
Top games in Ubisoft:
- Rayman Legends
- Rainbow Six: Siege
- Assassin's Creed
- Far Cry
- LevelHead
Battle.Net (Home of Starcraft and Diablo Series)
Battle.Net is another great platform for gaming from Blizzard entertainment. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard with apps both Windows Mac OS while ignoring Linux users exists. You'll find popular game series on here from both Blizzard and Activision putting World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty. Some of which are free to play or include a trial version to try them out first. While Steam may have the most well-known platform to buy PC games, Battle.net is actually older, having been released in 1996. The steam platform didn't invade our lives for many years later. Its initial release 2003.
Top games in Blizzard:
- Diablo 3
- Starcraft 2
- Hearthstone
- Warcraft 3
- World of Warcraft
Green Man (Green Man Lanterns?)
Green Man Gaming is a site many of you ever heard of, but globally is ranked on PC as the second largest distributor of digital games, only second to Steam. It's also one of the best sites to get high quality games at a discount. They've been around since 2010 and their multiplatform catalog includes more than 6500 games from indie to AAA developers, both new and old. They are an authorized dealer for selling digital keys for which insert publishers including Activision, 2K, Bethesda, Square Enix and many others. If you are a true PC Gamer, or is always on the hunt for a great deal, you should have this site bookmarked. You'll also find pricing in their hot deals section to be quite a bit lower than Steam and its other competitors.
Itch.IO (Itching for games)
If you've grown tired of the mainstream games, from the most well-known publishers Itch.IO might be the place for you. This a must-go to site for indie games from independent developers. Some of which are free or at a very low cost. They nearly doubled the number of games than in the Steam Store with around 100,000 titles to choose from. Most of which are obscure and a hell of a lot of fun to play.
Top games in Itch.IO:
- Friday Night Funkin'
- Among Us
- Butterfly Soup
- A Short Hike
- Circadian Dice
Microsoft Store (Craptastic! Go for Bethesda!)
If you're a Windows 10 user, you have a couple of places to buy games on your PC from Microsoft. One of which is built into the operating system an absolute disgrace. The Microsoft Store apps complete mess and it's poorly laid out and confusing to the average user. Shame on you Microsoft! On the flip side Microsoft has the Xbox app for Windows 10 PCs that you can download from the craptastic Microsoft Store. This is app has a far superior interface that makes it easier to find high-quality games with less clutter, and actually searching for games in the Microsoft Store. As a PC gamer, the Xbox Game pass for PC, is the best of any subscription service and can be accessed through the Xbox app. It just a dollar for the 1st month and $10 per month thereafter. By far it's the best deal in PC gaming right now. Not only do you get every game in the Halo series, you also get games from the Gears franchise, Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 4, and Motorsport 7, with the recent acquisition of Bethesda Games from the Doom, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls franchise are also included. with it. I said Xbox messages $10 after from as most of your ships and we're totally unbiased. This is honestly a great freaking deal.
What are your favorite websites or apps to download PC games?
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